THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
June 3, 2011 | 25
BUSINESS
CAREERS
DONALEE MOULTON
Time is of the essence. All too
often, however, busy lawyers lose
valuable minutes and even hours
from their day because of poor
time-management skills.
“Time management is the art
of making the best use of time
savers and eliminating time
wasters,” said Marty Sclisizzi, a
partner and leader of the
National Banking Group with
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
(BLG) in Toronto.
One of the biggest time
boosters, he noted, is being
organized. Sclisizzi colour codes
his files and keeps them current.
“You don’t waste time looking
for material.”
There’s an additional advan-
tage—to the firm, he noted.
“People think I’m an organiza-
tion freak, and perhaps I am. But
if I get hit by a bus, people can
pick up my files and hit the
ground running.”
Another critical organiza-
tional tool is a calendar. “Make
sure every task accounts for its
own duration. Make sure this
calendar is visible to you and to
everyone who needs to see it,”
said Anne Edmonds, Robert Half
Legal’s regional manager for
Canada who is based in Colorado.
“Making ideas tangible is a
major step towards successful
achievement,” she added. “By
contrast, keeping a system ‘in
your head’ is an impediment to
successful time management.”
The type of calendar is irrel-
evant, noted Audrey Thomas,
owner and president of Organ-
ized Audrey, LLC in Minneap-
olis. “It may be paper or elec-
tronic. You have to find a system
that works for you. And work it
to the max.”
At the heart of an effective
calendar system are two ele-
ments: planning and prioritiz-
ing. “[You need] adequate
planning of the day or week to
come, including allowing
enough time for the unexpected.
Most of us have enough work
experience to know the types of
‘unexpected’ tasks that are
likely to arrive,” said Steve
Prentice, president and CEO of
Bristall Morgan Inc., a profes-
sional development and educa-
tion firm in Toronto.
“Never fill your calendar 100
percent full,” he added. “Allow
space for opportunity or crisis or
simply transitioning from one
task or meeting to another.”
Sclisizzi makes a daily to-do
list at the end of each day. “I do
that every night before I go
home. I know exactly what I’m
going to do the next day,” he said.
Priorities shape task
lists—and save time. The key,
said Edmonds, is “learning to pri-
oritize various tasks so that high-
impact tasks take greater effort
than lower-impact items. When
these are effectively in place, time
management becomes less
strenuous or problematic.”
Lawyers may also need to
learn to take work off their plate
by not putting it on there in the
first place, advises Thomas. “Be
willing to say ‘no’ when common
sense is telling you you’ll pay for
this later.”
“There is a difference between
‘busy-ness’ and efficiency,” Pren-
tice pointed out. “Many people
take on too many tasks out of
fear of not appearing busy or not
feeling busy. By taking time to
both plan and review, you can
identify which tasks are the best
ones to take on and which should
be delegated.”
All in good time
Anne Edmonds, regional manager
for Canada with Robert Half
Legal, offers up the following tips
for saving time.
n;Identify the “mosts.” When
every project seems to be a top
priority, focus efforts on those
that will save the most money,
grow the most revenue, or
open doors to the most new
business. Encourage others to
use this same approach to
manage their time.
n;Be realistic about internal
resources. Delegating another
major project may bring an
already overloaded legal team to
the breaking point. Understand
their limitations in terms of time,
knowledge level, and experience.
n;Avoid micro-managing. Set
milestones and regular check-ins,
but otherwise let the team run
the initiative. Getting mired in
details will slow the process for
you and others.
n;Practice the golden rule. Show
respect for others’ time. Avoid
scheduling meetings that, on
closer inspection, aren’t really
necessary. Don’t keep associates
and staff waiting for feedback
and approvals.
One of the biggest time wasters is email, specifically the way
email is managed. “People leave
email programs open all the
time. The research shows you’re
checking about every five minutes. You’re basically stuck in
email all day,” noted Thomas.
Part of the email dilemma is
sending the wrong message to
colleagues and clients, said
Sclisizzi. “Email has unrealistic-
ally shortened response time.
Lawyers have to learn to man-
age clients’ and other lawyers’
expectations.”
“Emails can beget other
emails, which creates a lot of
emails but does not necessarily
bring a solution closer,” noted
Prentice. “It creates instead a
type of ergonomic inflation in
which more gets done but less
is achieved.”
Another time trap is multi-
tasking. On the surface, it sounds
like the epitome of efficiency.
That’s a false assumption,
stressed Sclisizzi. “You think
you’re saving time. You’re not.
Skillful time management
People aren’t born with time-management skills. Toronto-based keynote
speaker and time management expert Steve Prentice highlights the
attributes that need to be cultivated and honed in his book Cool Time: A
Hands-On Plan for Managing Work and Balancing Time. Among the
many well-timed skills many lawyers need to improve are the ability to:
Prioritize —
and stick to it
Develop
powerful
focus
Structure
the day in
a way that
works for you
Become more
organized in
habits and
workspace
Say “no” to
additional
tasks when
appropriate
Run
productive and
time-efficient
meetings
Understand
the role of
nutrition
Use email
and other
technologies
effectively
